Train trip! The wonderful Alyssa Rogers had her senior thesis art show “Darkness Becomes You” on wednesday and I took the opportunity to stage a visit to Santa Barbara. Amtrak was largely uneventful except for the radness that was our lead engine.
If you haven’t taken the Pacific Surfliner up or down the coast at least once you’re truly missing out. The route takes you by some pretty incredible scenery, from rugged coastlines to vineyard laden valleys and plenty of farmland.
After landing I grabbed my bike from king patriot and headed off to Alyssa’s show. Check out some more professional photos than the one’s I took on her website Here. The show was fantastic and not in an entirely comfortable way. Eyes watching from the side walls seemed to follow you as you walked around the room, gazing maliciously from within the boughs of black eucalyptus and a painted effigy of the artist sat cradling a sickened and bleeding male head. The entire time the room was filled with a noxious screeching electronic ambience and the entire experience was unsettling.
Comedic relief was eventually provided by the magnanimous Cave Babies, voiced by Josh Redman. Josh played us several songs on his ukelele (?) to our great enjoyment. The show was imrpomptu, with Mr Redman kneeling on the concrete of the gallery, his audience the same. Cave Babies was quite a juxtaposition given the intensity of Alyssa’s work surrounding him, but his performance provided a great bookend to balance out the mood.
Thursday it was time to climb. My good friend Ian Bloom took me out to The Brickyard up on Camino Cielo. A classic SB bouldering spot, the place literally looks like a giant’s brickyard. A sandstone band eroded by wind and rain left some classic (and not so classic) boulders on the top of the hill, roughly rectangular, red and orange blocks of crumbling dirt rock with climber goat paths linking the various areas. Topouts are mantle-prone but worth it for the amazing views of downtown Santa Barbara and UCSB.
The brickyard is a great spot when there’s not too much heat. Unfortunately we got a bit roasted out there despite mostly climbing in the shade. Flies were everywhere but a continuously full mug of mate was helping to keep them at bay. Ian and I ended up sending smooth criminal, which was a multi year project for me that I am very happy to put away. Dancing outlaw was another story though, and a sizable flapper relegated that one to project status. All in all a great session.
Thursday Night: I met back up with Josh and Alyssa after a 3+ hour power nap on Alyssa’s futon with just enough time to make it to a performance of 1000 Years of Trial Child from Scotty Wagner. Scotty gave us an amazing play, he covered something like 10 different characters all coming to terms with and involving themselves with Trial Child, the future solution for nervous first time parents.
Later on, Josh gave me the opportunity to sit in on his radio show 5432Fun and give a lesson on death metal vocals. I’m credited as the Mad Scientist, which was a shoutout to my band Slab City. Snow Roller came in after the lesson and played an awesome live set. I hope they sounded as good on the air as they did live because I was having a real hard time keeping myself from dancing in the studio.
Back to San Francisco – Auburn Quarry
I was lucky enough to hitch a ride with Conor Coady back to San Francisco, saving me about 4 hours of travel time, which was a nice buffer between the next trip to Auburn Quarry. My sister Erica, Cezanne, Dan, Jenna and I camped under the stars next to the American River on Friday night. I was happy for some time outside in a sleeping bag and having the river nearby was great for soothing background noise. I slept like a rock and we were off early saturday morning after oatmeal.
Auburn is a beautiful place. The hills roll on and on, through green pastures and historic hamlets where the first gold miners in California staked their claims. The North and South Forks of the American River have their confluence at the entrance to the Quarry Trail giving a pretty spectacular hike in. We had a perfect day of blue sky with massive white clouds rolling through providing some necessary shade.
I was super impressed with everyone’s stoke and general psyche. Everyone was soaking up knowledge like sponges, climbing super hard and honestly making it one of the more memorable days of climbing for me. Everyone topped out a 5.9 too, very impressive for a first day toproping.
I got a few routes in, including a repeat of Human Oddity, but was completely shut down by Bizatch. 12c is hard. By the end of the day dusk was greeting us and everyone was getting pretty well pooped. We walked through golden light on the quarry trail to the banks of the North Fork where Dan and I took a swim. The water was clear and cool, deeper parts giving way to a deep teal. I thought of all the toil people had sweat into this river, searching for dust and nuggets in years past, thankful to have the river wash away my own sweat. Eventually nature made its call in the form of ravenous hunger and we all scarfed down some triple “A” burgers from Ikedas along with a well deserved beer. Thanks for making the trip great guys, I’m proud of you all for giving such a great effort and for making it so enjoyable for me as a teacher. 
Andrew Bondesson 